Richmond, VA-–When Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an eleventh-hour veto of the Contraceptive Equity Act last month, he entered into what has become an increasingly fraught national debate around the right to access and use contraception. The bills, sponsored by Senator Ghazala Hashmi and Delegate Marcia Price, would have guaranteed that medical professionals would be legally allowed to prescribe contraception and that patients could not be prohibited from accessing it. During the legislative session, Governor Youngkin attempted to amend the bills, rewriting them to affirm the legislature’s support of contraception but removing provisions that would have allowed the laws to comply with federal regulations. Senator Hashmi said that the Governor’s amendments “gutted” the bills, and legislators refused to debate the amendments, leaving the Governor only the option to pass or veto the original bills. He vetoed them just hours before the legislative deadline.
“By vetoing this bill, Governor Youngkin is saying the quiet part out loud: Republicans aren’t just coming for abortion, they are coming for the right to use contraception. They’re ready to take away any agency you think you have when planning your family,” said LaTwyla Mathias, Executive Director at Progress Virginia. “This is a dangerous time to be a person who can give birth. Republicans would rather prioritize protecting themselves from imagined attacks on their religious freedom than your right to make health care decisions for yourself. If Republicans are returned to power, the right to decide when you have children and how many children you have will absolutely be up for debate. We have to watch what they’re doing now, and make it clear that we reject these policies in November.”
The right to contraception, once thought to be settled law, is back in the national spotlight
Background:
- In Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurrence to the Dobbs decision that overturned the right to abortion for millions, he flirted with the idea of reconsidering other cases that hinged on the right to privacy; one of the bills he explicitly cited was Griswold v. Connecticut, which protected the right to contraception.
- Earlier this week, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that he would support restrictions on contraception before backtracking on social media several hours later.
- The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, long seen as a potential blueprint for a future Trump administration, calls for both a ban on medication abortion and national restrictions on contraception.
- Some states, including Missouri, Idaho, and Louisiana, are already debating bills that would ban some popular forms of contraception in the states
- Access to contraception is already limited for over 19 million women nationwide.